The Durham Chronicle - 2017-12-12

More documents

Recommendations

Info

12 The Chronicle December 12 - 18, 2017 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Community Ajax visits Pumpkinville Michael Bromby The Chronicle Residents of Ajax celebrated fall with the annual Pumpkinville event. Volunteers dressed as Batman, clowns, and the Incredibles, while entertaining the crowd with everything from dancing to a haunted house. Debbie McGregor has lived in Ajax for many years but this was her first year at Pumpkinville for a special reason. She rarely sees her grandchildren because they live in Buffalo, N.Y. They surprised her by coming up for the weekend, so she took them. “It’s wonderful when the community does stuff like this,” says McGregor. “We love the music, and we like to dance.” Pumpkinville provided attractions for people of all ages, including a bouncy castle, kettle corn, live music, tractor rides, and a haunted house. “It’s great to see how much of a turn out this event has, and it brings everyone closer,” says a haunted house volunteer, who did not want to come out of character by giving her name. This was her third year volunteering for the event. She likes how it gets people in the fall spirit. William McGinn The Chronicle More than $20,000 was raised in an annual walk organized by the AIDS Committee of Durham Region. About 100 people of all ages took part in the event held Sept. 16 which started at Oshawa’s Memorial Park. Activities took place at the park such as dancing, face painting and free lunch. This was the 19th walk the committee has organized. “It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing or whether you’re dressed in orange or red, or you have a costume on today,” Oshawa mayor John Henry told the group before the walk started. “You’re here for the right reason. You’re building community.” Since becoming mayor in October of 2010, Henry has not missed one year of this walk. Henry was not the only high-ranking politician in Oshawa in attendance. Oshawa MP Colin Carrie, Whitby-Oshawa MPP Lorne Coe and Oshawa MPP Jennifer French were also on hand. Other familiar faces included Adrian Betts, an HIV survivor and executive director of the AIDS committee. He has been working at the committee for 10 years and has been in the business of fighting the disease for almost 30. He got hired by the AIDS Foundation in Toronto in 1989 and has worked for several AIDS organizations since. When the AIDS committee of Durham Region opened in 1991, there were only two employees. When Betts came to Oshawa a It's wonderful when the community does stuff like this. She plans to return next year with friends to help. About 6,000 people attended Pumpkinville, about half as many as the previous year, according to Amanda Bell, with Ajax’s recreation and culture department. She hopes the drop in attendance was because of the rain and cold weather and not the event itself. “The weather was a factor. We usually get up to 10,000 people and last year we got 12,000,” says Bell. This year, Pumpkinville had new live demonstrations, including a lumberjack show, a First Nation cultural tour performance, drumming workshops, and a live bird show. decade ago, there were only four. “We’ve evolved since then,” explained Michael Morgan, manager of operations for the AIDS committee. “We [now have] 14 people Kaileb McDonald hands out kettle corn at Ajax's Pumpkinville. working for the agency. We have about 200 volunteers.” According to Betts, the volunteers are very active. “There are volunteers for the Photograph by William McGinn Participants at the 2017 AIDS walk model the T-shirts they wore as part of the event. speaker’s bureau, volunteers who do driving, taking people for appointments, use phones, run the food bank. We couldn’t run without all these volunteers,” he said. Photograph by Michael Bromby Durham Region AIDS walk raises more than $20,000 He also said the Durham Region committee is so successful, it has worldwide acclaim. “Oshawa managed to create campaigns that are recognized globally,” he said. One example of a successful campaign is the Cat and Rooster campaign, which had a brand of T-shirts, posters, stickers and educational pamphlets. The campaign was used to recognize safe sex by giving humorous slogans. It was also erotic, with some of the materials saying “Cover Your” above a picture of a rooster and “Protect Your” above a cat. There was controversy when the materials showed up at a high school in Ajax, but before then, they were displayed at public health agency and social services across Durham without backlash. The campaign was also recognized by the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. Carrie supported the committee, saying, “when you think about AIDS and outreach, here in Durham Region, we really are leaders in the country and around the world.” While Betts has been in the industry for decades, there was also a new face leading the walk. Katie Namek, who has been working at the committee for three months, was the director this year. She was pleased with how the walk turned out. When asked if the politicians were invited, she replied, “we organized [everyone who came], but we’re always happy when politicians come to support us because we couldn’t do our work without their support.”
Community chronicle.durhamcollege.ca December 12 - 18, 2017 The Chronicle 13 Chew up the competition Professional eaters swallow their way to the top John Cook The Chronicle Annual Smoke’s Poutine Eating Contest Crowns New “King of the Curds.” Fries were flung, shirts were stained, and by the end of the day, a new champion had emerged. Eleven ‘professional eaters’ from across the globe descended upon Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto in mid-October to compete in a test of will and strength—of stomach: The Eighth Annual Smoke’s World Poutine Eating Championship (or WPEC). Thousands of people watched as seemingly endless boxes of poutine were served. The aim of the competition was to eat as much Smoke’s poutine—a Canadian comfort food consisting of fries and cheese curds smothered in gravy—as possible in a set time. Water was provided and utensils were not used—they are too slow to effectively grab large mouthfuls of the Canadian treat. This year, Carmen Cincotti, a software engineer from Mays Landing, N.J. took home first place by consuming just over 20 pounds of poutine in ten minutes. It’s another impressive title for the 150-pound Cincotti. At 25, he holds multiple Guinness World Records in speed-eating, including most bratwurst sausages (101 in 10 minutes), and most sweet corn (61 ears in 12 minutes) eaten. At last year’s WPEC, he finished second. The winner in 2016 was Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, who skipped this year’s events. Coincidentally, the self-proclaimed sporting organization, which sanctions competitive events such as the WPEC (known as MLE—Major League Eating), ranks Cincotti as the second-greatest competitive eater worldwide, while Chestnut has long held the number one spot. This year, Cincotti emerged as front-runner almost immediately, and led by a wide margin for most of the event. He focused intensely as he ate heaping handfuls of poutine, only looking up from the table to take necessary gulps of water. Cincotti said he doesn’t have any special tricks for devouring box after box of poutine so quickly. Photograph by John Cook Four 'professional eaters' stuff their faces at the eighth annual WPEC in Toronto on Oct. 15. “I close my eyes and keep shoveling it down,” he said. “I wish there was a technique.” As the winner, Cincotti was the recipient of a $6,000 grand prize, along with endless glory (and likely, some heartburn). Second place in this year’s competition went to newbie Darron Breeden from Orange, VA., who finished 15.5 pounds in his first showing at the WPEC. Gideon Oji, a six-foot-nine tall veteran of competitive eating, came in third with 13.75 pounds. John Jugovic, one of only two Photograph by John Cook Carmen Cincotti wins trophy. Canadians in this year’s contest, said Toronto is one of his favourite cities to compete in because the audience is large and engaged. “I love having so many people. There are some other competitions I’ve been to—like Portland, ORE.—where maybe ten people show up, but here we have thousands of great people, because Toronto, Ont. loves sports.” Just one week later, Cincotti went on to win the World Championship Bratwurst Eating Contest in Tulsa, OKLA. by eating 90 brats in 10 minutes. The year of No Excuses Claudia Latino The Chronicle At 16, Drew Nicholson was like many teenagers. He didn’t want to listen to his parents. He wasn’t living at home because all he thought about was going out with friends and didn’t know what he wanted for himself. “I wasn’t living in the best place and I wasn’t treated the way I should’ve been. It then came to the realization of what my parents were trying to tell me,” said Nicholson. Two years later, he is a Durham College student in plumbing and has launched a clothing line connected to his past. He created No Excuses in May 2017. He says he used to make excuses for little things, such as not waking up to his set alarm and not completing his assignments on time. He encourages people wearing his clothing to not make excuses for things: don’t push the snooze button every morning, complete the bonus question on a test, start assignments early rather than later. “I haven’t made the right decisions before and I’ve learned from them. There was a situation where I wasn’t making the right decisions and I didn’t know. Until one day I just learned from my past. Now I always take that extra second to think,” said Nicholson. He started by setting his own goals. Nicholson used to be a soccer player. He loved it and wanted to get fit for the sport since he stopped playing for a while. He would run every day and document his progress. It's up to us to make the right decisions. “I told myself, I’m going to show my audience this is my goal and this is how I’m going do it. Day one, jog, day two, sprint. And then people would start messaging me saying, “Drew how long could you keep this up, how long could you keep going?” said Nicholson. He ran into a day where things weren’t going the way he wanted, leaving him unmotivated to finish. He says this only pushed him harder to complete what he started. “I told myself that I have a priority and the priority is to run. I ended up running that day and it felt great,” said Nicholson. He shares his story on Snapchat and encourages his audience to also set goals, by not making excuses. His online clothing brand sells T-shirts, crop tops, and hoodies. All products have a solid base colour with a camouflage background with white letters across saying, “No Excuses.” Solid colours come in white, black, grey, and pink. Shirts sell for $25 and hoodies for $40. At this point, Nicholson has sold to his friends and more people in his community. He says more products, along with a new collection called, ‘We Own the Streets’, will come out within the next year. This collection is also connected to his past experiences. “We, the community, own up to our decisions on the street and it’s up to us to make the right decisions,” said Nicholson. He says his brand has taught him to not give up on the things he wanted to accomplish. His message makes him a living example of learning by trial and error. He says he wants people to find their moment to make a difference. “I can’t be ‘No Excuses’ and then make excuses,” said Nicholson. Photograph by Claudia Latino Drew Nicholson, creator of No Excuses shows off his creations.
Page 1 and 2: It’s up to us to make the right d
Page 3 and 4: Campus chronicle.durhamcollege.ca D
Page 5 and 6: chronicle.durhamcollege.ca December
Page 9 and 10: Community chronicle.durhamcollege.c
Page 11: Campus chronicle.durhamcollege.ca D
Page 15 and 16: Entertainment chronicle.durhamcolle
Page 19 and 20: Sports chronicle.durhamcollege.ca D

The Durham Chronicle - 2017-12-12

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?